In the aftermath of Mission: Tehran, psychic spy Tana Standish crossed into Afghanistan, accompanied by agent Alan Swann. Their rendezvous with Mike Clayton was delayed and while they waited for him in Herat, Tana befriends a Soviet forces family, intent on discovering details about the presence of General Pavlovsky. They're then caught in a devastating civil uprising.... Inexorably, the Soviets are being drawn into the politics of Afghanistan. And Clayton, Swann and Tana are linked with the heroic Massoud, the tyrant President Amin and the mujahedeen. Tana makes new friends and new enemies in her constant fight against injustice. Professor Bublyk is still trying to locate Tana - and the missing Spetsnaz agent Aksakov. Distrustful of the psychic Yakunin, he recruits killer Klimov. Together, they imprison Yakunin in order to draw Tana out to rescue him. Tana is aware that it must be a trap. But she owes her life to Yakunin, even though they have not met... A tense cat-and-mouse battle of wits stretches the length and breadth of the country - to the far reaches of the Wakhan corridor, the Special Psychiatric Hospital in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and ultimately to the Khyber Pass.